LeighFisher Global Management Consultancy for Road and Infrastructure Networks

LeighFisher is a global management consultancy with deep expertise in transportation, energy and utilities, government and infrastructure services.

For more than 60 years LeighFisher (formerly Jacobs Consultancy) has been providing strategic and advisory management consultancy services to clients in the road and related infrastructure sectors from its offices in the US, the UK, Italy, Canada, and India.

The company’s aim is to be the strategic business partner of investors, operators and government leaders and help them navigate and overcome the most challenging issues they face.

Global road network consultancy

LeighFisher has a lasting commitment to developing a leading, global, multi-sector management consultancy business and is explicitly configured around four emerging drivers of long-term value for its clients. These four cornerstones of the business are independence, responsiveness, innovation, and global insight.

With this long-term plan set out for the future, LeighFisher will develop over time as a consultancy serving multiple industry sectors on a worldwide basis, but importantly the business will retain its industry-specific organisation and focus. In this way, industry commitment and expertise on transport and road issues will be retained, but with the benefit of global insight and cross-sector experience.

Private investment in highways and toll roads

As car ownership continues to grow at an ever-increasing rate, the pressures on existing highway infrastructure are reaching the point where congestion and delays are becoming a regular day-long event.

As a result, the demand for upgraded or new facilities is expanding at an exponential rate. However, the ability of many governments to fund such infrastructure through traditional public sector methods is reducing as demands across all infrastructure sectors become increasingly stretched.

The use of private finance is increasingly seen as the way forward for road networks, as tolled highways offer a funding source for the schemes, while at the same time delivering high-quality facilities to the motoring public. The key to delivering this outcome starts with a public sector promoter who has:

• Clarity on its objectives and determination to deliver
• An appreciation of the costs and benefits of risk transfer
• A transparent and robust procurement process

This allows the private sector to do what it does best: manage the delivery of any project construction and then operate the facility to the standard expected by road users. In turn, this alignment of interests and risks between the public and private sectors will ensure the availability of both private sector equity and debt to fund the project.

Worldwide road-traffic expertise

LeighFisher has worked on privately financed highway projects around the world, including schemes in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, UAE, the UK and the US to name but a few locations.

With this global experience of roads, LeighFisher has built up an unrivalled knowledge that can be passed on to its clients. Here are a few examples of previous road-traffic projects the company has undertaken.

• Istanbul Straits road tunnel, Turkey: LeighFisher was commissioned to produce traffic and revenue forecasts for a new toll tunnel under the Bosporus. A detailed highway model was developed to forecast tunnel traffic in the cross-Bosporus travel market. We were also asked to consider the traffic management and traffic engineering aspects of the scheme, including an assessment of approach roads, the impact of the scheme and its traffic on the Historical Peninsula, and a traffic management plan to mitigate any traffic impact during construction.
• Manila International Airport toll road, The Philippines: In this ongoing study, we have been appointed by the World Bank (IFC) to act as international traffic and technical advisors during the procurement of this new expressway toll road linking the airport to the main city expressway network. Our advice has ranged from a review of the general feasibility of the scheme, through support on the provision of revenue and cost inputs for the financial model, through to detailed review of the concession documents and assistance in marketing the project to the international private finance community.
• Dynamic tolling in the US: LeighFisher is familiar with the concept of ‘managed lanes’, as operated in the US. We have developed both high level project screening tools for investors (utilising experience from the existing ‘grandfather’ schemes such as SR91 in California), as well as detailed project forecasts for specific greenfield investments. We are currently advising one of the bidders for the WxNW scheme in Atlanta on traffic and revenue issues. This support has included data collection, development of a managed lanes demand model and advice on tolling strategy and the traffic implications of scheme design.